The Beetles of the Mountains 



The antennae are quite short, the head large and broad, 

 and adapted to the function of a spade, the thorax 

 rather broader than long, convex with all the angles 

 rounded off, shining and finely punctured, the elytra 

 also closely punctured with traces of raised lines and 

 leave the apex of the abdomen uncovered, the legs well 

 developed and powerful, as they have to assist in 

 the digging process. In the males the tarsi, that is, 

 the final leg joints, are very much enlarged and 

 flattened out. 



N. humator is probably our commonest large 

 burying beetle and our only indigenous entirely black 

 Necrophorus. The other members of the genus and 

 there are five of them are all somewhat smaller, varying 

 from about 12 to 18 mm., and their elytra are black 

 marked by two very conspicuous transverse waved 

 orange-red bands, otherwise they much resemble N. 

 humator in structure, differing inter se in such points 

 of detail as the colour of the antennal club, shape and 

 and position of the orange bands, and shape of the second 

 joint or tibia of the hinder pair of legs. 



The species we are likely to take here on this mountain 

 side is Necrophorus mortuorum (the Necrophorus of the 

 dead), Fig. 7, Plate B. It is one of the smaller species, 

 averaging not more than 12 mm. in length ; the club of 

 the antennae is black, the orange bands of the elytra 

 widely interrupted in the middle so as to look like two 

 large orange spots on each elytron, and the tibiae of the 

 hind legs straight and not curved as in some of the 

 other species. 



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